Orbis
2020 ; 64
(3
): 489-500
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Why Isn t Latvia the "Next" Crimea? Reconsidering Ethnic Integration
#MMPMID32834130
Ekmanis I
Orbis
2020[]; 64
(3
): 489-500
PMID32834130
show ga
In the aftermath of Russia's military incursion in Ukraine and the annexation of
Crimea in 2014, a flurry of articles predicted the next territorial conquest of
President Vladimir Putin's Russian revanchism. High on the list were the Baltic
countries, which sit precariously on the edge of Europe and historically have
been the "bloodlands" between East and West in author Timothy Snyder's phrasing.
More specifically, journalists and analysts pointed to the "Russian enclaves" in
northeastern Estonia and southeastern Latvia, where, by many accounts, large
ethnic Russian populations were prepared to rise up against Baltic governments
with a bit of provocation from across the eastern border. However, six years on,
there is little indication that Russian speakers in the Baltic countries are on
the brink of causing an internal uprising. While there are multiple factors that
can help explain the Baltic "dog that didn't bark," this essay considers an often
overlooked variable in the equation: the depth of civic and cultural integration
among Russian speakers in Latvia.
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